State school vs Private school

[user1499199457]

Help and advice please!

I am wanting our daughter to attend one of 3 local high schools where as my O/H seems hell bent on applying to an all girls private school which includes entry exams, assessment day etc. We are literally at loggerheads and I'm very concerned that if I do give in and agree to applying to the private school then we will 'step off' the local council admissions and therefore if our daughter/us are unsuccessful with the private school application will we have to apply late to the council admissions and therefore miss out on a school that both myself and daughter want to apply for or can we apply for both state and private at the same time - I can't find any info about this and the OH has these 'oh so wonderful ideas' but can't be bothered to do the leg work.

Advice/experiences required please and a super big thank you in advance

Why do you have to "step off" the local council admissions??

They run completely separately
There is nothing to stop you applying in good time with the usual council state school process

You can keep your state school place as long as you want but at some point you will start to incur costs for your indi application. E.g. a registration fee, an acceptance fee (which can be up to £1000) at which point you might want to relinquish your state place if you have decided to go that route. Also keep in mind that someone might be desperately waiting for your state place on a waiting list.

You can submit your state school application, and as many private school applications as you want. Usually, you pay a fee - say £100 - to sit the exam.

In your shoes, I would submit your DD's state application, and let DH deal with the private school admission process. Chances are, from what you say, he won't .

They're completely separate. You apply for state and get allocated a place same as anyone else, which you can also accept. In addition you apply for independents. It's not either/or.

Only difference is that if you accept an independent place, and then decide to go with the state you're likely to be liable for a terms fees. On the plus side you can keep the state place right up to September, although it's considerate to decline it asap when you've made a decision.

Be warned though that even a very average (or even one not worth the fees) private will have much better facilities than a state school, so you would be wise to try and view it and the state schools before open days minus your dd if you aren't sure, so you can think through it. Or the biggest complication could be your dd viewing it on open day, being dazzled and comparing the state schools negatively, dh supporting her, and you still not thinking it worthwhile and coming across as the mean one however good your reasoning is.

Of course, if your DD doesn't want the private school, all she needs to do is flunk the exams

5 years of secondary fees makes for a tidy house deposit, or extra tuition.

Suggesting she deliberately flunk the exams is an option but let's say after two years in the state school you decide, for whatever reason, a move to the private school would be beneficial. Great first impression. Let her sit it and then you can decide whether to you want to accept a place.

Have you looked around all possibilities. If not, go to all as a family so you know exactly what they can offer. If might be that one unexpectedly stands out more than the other. DD is 13 and will know why she prefers what a certain school has to offer, so whichever it is, her thoughts need to be taken into account.

Just because she does state school now, doesn't mean she couldn't take up a Sixth Form place in a private school when she's a lot more focused on getting good A level results for the course of her choice.